Tuba Player Gunnery Sergeant Simon Wildman of Kingwood, W. Va., joined “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band in June 2013.
Gunnery Sgt. Wildman began his musical training on the tuba at age 12. After graduating in 2004 from Morgantown High School he earned a bachelor’s degree in music performance in 2008 from West Virginia University (WVU). He continued his studies, earning a master’s degree from Ohio University (OU) in 2010 and a doctorate from the University of Georgia (UGA) in 2014. He studied with Dave McCollum of WVU, Jason Smith of OU, and David Zerkel of UGA.
Prior to joining “The President’s Own,” he performed with the Dayton Philharmonic in Ohio. In 2012 he won the International Tuba Euphonium Conference’s (ITEC) Solo Artist competition and was a prizewinner at both the Markneukirchen International Competition in Germany and the Leonard Falcone Competition in Lansing, Mich.
Gunnery Sgt. Wildman performs with the Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra at the White House, in the Washington, D.C., area, and across the country during the band’s annual concert tour. In addition, he was a soloist at the Army Band Tuba-Euphonium Conference in 2013 and played recitals with the American Tuba Quartet at the conference in 2014-2015. He also was a featured soloist at ITEC in Knoxville, Tenn., in 2016, and during the Marine Band’s 2019 West Coast tour.